Thinking about home studio - advice?

[Rich_T]

Hey everyone, i'm thinking of setting up a home studio before I go off to university to study Sound Engineering next year.

Now, I need some advice on what setup to put together. I think the current options are:

1. A Mac with the M-box and Pro Tools (havent decided on the exat Mac specs yet, need some guidance on that.)

or

2. An all in one solution such as the Tascam 2488 or Boss BR1600CD.

Of course i'm going to need some mics on top of that, SM57 etc.

Now, could I use my Hi Fi system as monitors? Its a pretty expensive seperates sytem. Or would I need seperate monitors too?

I could do with a new computer before I go anyway, just for general assignments and internet use and stuff, so i'm currently thinking option 1 would be better. But I dont have a great deal of knowlege about the systems themselves, so any guidance would be much appreciated.

 

[RW James]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

There are many good answers to this...

I use Cakewalk - I haven't used anything else so I can't compare - but I've heard some bad things about Pro Tools

As far as system requirements - I would really recommend you look around this forum
http://forum.cakewalk.com/

Monitors - generally the rule is you want something with flat response - which is contrary to what your stereo system will do. But if all you are doing is trying to get some experience - you might be able to EQ your system as flat as possible and get away with that.

All-in-one-solution - I have a friend with a really nice Roland digital recording system. We recorded a CD on it and it does a nice job. But I know there are things I can do with Cakewalk that he can't even come close to doing. But his is a lot more portable than mine.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of answers to this - all valid.

Good luck,
Rick

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

cheers mate, do you run cakewalk on a PC or a Mac?

anyone else?

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

I run MBox/ProTools on a fairly new PC. I used to use Cakewalk but switched mainly because I wanted my recordings to be compatible with what the studios use in case I have to do some tracks at one. Sound quality on ProTools vs. Cakewalk is noticeably better IMO, but Cakewalk was definitely an easier app to deal with. ProTools is very VERY picky with regards to system requirements, and if I had the choice I would run it off a Mac. Cakewalk is probably fine either way.

I wouldn't recommend using your Hi fi system for monitoring. Commercial home-theatre systems are designed to make the recording sound as good as possible, and to do this they emphasize and de-emphasize certain frequencies. There is also a lot of variation in the frequency response depending on which speakers you are using. Studio monitors are designed to produce a very flat frequency response, which means what you hear is exactly what was recorded. If you can't afford monitors, you should at least start with a good pair of studio headphones. I recommend AKG or Sennheiser for those.

As for mics, you can't go wrong with one or two SM57's or SM58's. They are very versatile and as good a quality as you will need in the short term. If you intend to record a lot of vocals, I would look into a good large-diaphragm condenser mic with the shock mounts. Expect to pay at least $500 for one of those. Generally though, your mic selection depends mostly on which instruments you would like to record mostly.

Hope that helps!

 

[RW James]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

cheers mate, do you run cakewalk on a PC or a Mac?

anyone else?

PC

...and I agree with what ratherdashing said about monitors... it all depends on what you can afford.

I opted for high end PC speakers and a headphone... but when it comes down to the mix, I generally do the best I can - burn the CD - then listen to it on my home system and in my car - because every system is different.

Rick

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

I'm running a Powermac G5 2.2 with a gig of ram with ProTools. I have the Digi002 rack and I'm running the Wavs 4.0 bundle. I was running ProTools on a P4 1.6g 512m ram PC and it ran ok, but it was a little quirky and latency was an issue. ProTools really is designed around OSX and the shortcuts are much better on a Mac. Optimually you'll want a dual processor machine with 2 HDs for ProTools but $2k+ for the computer makes things get pricey quick. If you want a system that absolutly smokes for recording it's the only way to go. With a dual 2g or better computer latency is almost non-exsistant.

As far as monitors go, you really want a powered set of flat responce monitors to mix off of. If you must use stereo speakers try to find a small satellite pair and not a pair of 12" 4 ways. The throw is too long to mix off of high powered full range speakers.

 

[Brow]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

On my PC at the minute I'm running Reason 3.0 (MIDI sequencing software) and Logic Platinum 5.5 for Recording.

I haven't got around to making any actual recordings as of yet, although I have been playing around with Reason making drum loops etc

In the past I've used Cubase, Cakewalk and Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition). I found Cool Edit Pro to be the easiest to use, and the results always turned out ok

Craig

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

I'd go with the Mbox/Pro-Tools option on a Mac, as well.

I suggest joining the Andy Sneap forum, as it has a very friendly atmosphere like SD, but they'll answer any questions regarding recording, mixing, producing, etc. Pro's like Andy and James Murphy hang out there all the time, as well, and offer superb guidance.

http://www.AndySneap.com/

You might find that the place is fairly metal based, but that goes with Andy and James. Andy has done 3 Nevermore albums, the new Arch Enemy, and countless other metal bands, while James was in Death, Obituary, and Cancer.

 

[dani]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

depending on what you intend to do and if you are going to upgrade your system constantly. and of course budget.

protools are the industry standard for recording and editing. downside is you will need adequate computing power. macs are better than pc in this aspect. the usual powermac g4 will suffice and you can get them relatively cheap on the used market. if portability is an issue, at least go for a g4 ibook if not a powerbook. i will suggest using a separate harddrive for you audio applications. you don't want anything to screw it up especially if you are using your mac to surf the net. as with all budget computer-based recording, latency will be an issue. it is especially evident when you are monitoring for multi-tracking.

may i ask what will you be recording mostly? guitars, bass, drums and vocals or more synthesized stuff? how professional sounding you want them to be? besides protools, there is logic and cubase. you may want to check them out as well. the good thing about computer-based recording is there are 3rd-party plug-ins for tons of sounds. you can control these with a midi controller. i can remotely remember a hammond b3 plug-in that emulates the sound of a hammond organ controlled via a midi keyboard and an on-board yamaha spx-900 emulator.

you can do wonders with computer recording if you have the right setup at your disposal. one word of advice though. music is an expensive hobby. you may want to go for the best budget permitting. compromising will cost you more in terms of upgrading as computer technology advances by leaps and bounds.

 

[AmirH]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

I'd go with the Mbox/Pro-Tools option on a Mac, as well.

I suggest joining the Andy Sneap forum, as it has a very friendly atmosphere like SD, but they'll answer any questions regarding recording, mixing, producing, etc. Pro's like Andy and James Murphy hang out there all the time, as well, and offer superb guidance.

http://www.AndySneap.com/

You might find that the place is fairly metal based, but that goes with Andy and James. Andy has done 3 Nevermore albums, the new Arch Enemy, and countless other metal bands, while James was in Death, Obituary, and Cancer.

You aren't DSS3 by any chance are you? Haha, how long have you been on that forum? It's an absolute freakin goldmine of information- if only they would reactivate the search function...

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

Yeah, that's me on there! I've been looking at the place for about a month now, just started posting yesterday.

The search function... I wish it had that. That's one thing I truely need at a forum like that.

 

[More-Gear-Than-Skill]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

Mac G5 with Logic Pro. Power with few headaches. No messing about with aftermarket drivers, cards and conflicts. Just works. Your existing sound-system should be fine initially.

 

[MattPete]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

Although I haven't used either, have you considered Logic instead of ProTools?

The good thing about going the Mac route is that the OS has been designed with extremely low-latency with recording in mind.

More-Gear-Than-Skill: I was considering biting the bullet and buying a G5 tower, as I need a little more oomph than my Powerbook provides. How do you like Logic? Have you also used ProTools?

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

Cheers for all the advice guys. Im currently looking at this as a possible setup:

Power Mac G5 with dual 2.0 processor, with the M-Box. Seems to be speedy and cost effective.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

Sounds like you're on the right track. As others have said, don't forget to get a second hard drive for your audio files. ProTools doesn't enjoy writing to the main hard drive.

Best of luck with everything!

 

[AmirH]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

Yeah, that's me on there! I've been looking at the place for about a month now, just started posting yesterday.

The search function... I wish it had that. That's one thing I truely need at a forum like that.

Yeah, I REAAAALLY miss the search function. Man, they had presets made up for just about everything. I wish I had the foresight to save some of that stuff. Supposedly Deron is going to install different software with the search function soon though.

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

Kyuss, I have to highly recommend the Digi002 rack over the MBox. It might cost you $500 more but the flexability from the 002 rack is killer and worth the extra money.

Besides 4 mic preamps and an additional 4 line inputs you get 8 channel sends and returns. Using the send/returns means you can record dry and send/return to outboard effects and then mix the two for higher control of your tone and processing.

If you are going to spend the money on the dual 2.0, which is a badass machine, spend a bit more on your interface. Later on you can get a control surface and things will get even easier to use.

Trust me on this one.....

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

Cool, cheers man, whats a control surface though?

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Thinking about home studio - advice?

ProTools is very easy to mouse around and adding animation to the effects and faders makes mixing far easier than trying to keep your hands on the faders.

A control surface looks like a mixing board with faders, punch in/outs, record enable and effects in/out buttons. It adds a more hands on feel to recording and mixing.

Go to the DigiDesign site and check out the Command8 or Control24 surfaces. I really want a Control24 in a bad way but even at my price $6300 is a bit of change. Mackie, Yamaha and others also make control surfaces that are reasonably priced.